Re-Signing Alert: Toni Lydman

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Maybe DaveB can clarify some salary cap interpretation? There is a difference between the salary that counts towards the cap and the salary that a player is earning for the season. Like Lydman's deal for example: It's a four-year deal worth 11.5-million dollars. He'll make $2.3-million this up coming season, and $2.9-million the following year. Lydman will make $3.15-million. So based upon the CBA, the 4 year average counts towards this year's cap ($2.875 million), but Lydman will only be paid $2.3-million. A savings of .575 million.

 

The cap is a paper number. Salary is a cash flow issue. Basically, the contracts that have been signed this summer are hedging on the Sabres revenue growth. The Sabres are betting that revenue will grow each year and costs will as well. This way they keep the same cost to revenue ratio and still earn the same profit. It's a lot of finance talk, but it's likely that the $36 million target that is rumored, may only be an actual salary (cash) target for 06-07 whereas the cap (paper) target could exceed it.

 

Any thoughts?

[bob_sauve28]

I think Lydman really stepped it up in the playoffs. Earlier in the year I didn't really trust him, but he really impressed me as the season went on, and into the playoffs. Plus, he's got great chemistry with Tallinder. Just looking at this alone tells me we have a very underrated top pair of defenseman. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/stats/bycatego...son_2005&sort=3

 

I am very happy with this move. :D

I very much agree. I was at the local rink not long ago and was screwing around. Decided to try a few Lydman backhander bloopers out of the zone. Now way! That is one of the most difficult plays to make backhanding the puck out of the zone, yet he does it easily all the time. I elbow hurt the next day. I use to play floor hockey and its easy with a hockey ball but the puck is really different.

[Taro T]

Maybe DaveB can clarify some salary cap interpretation? There is a difference between the salary that counts towards the cap and the salary that a player is earning for the season. Like Lydman's deal for example: It's a four-year deal worth 11.5-million dollars. He'll make $2.3-million this up coming season, and $2.9-million the following year. Lydman will make $3.15-million. So based upon the CBA, the 4 year average counts towards this year's cap ($2.875 million), but Lydman will only be paid $2.3-million. A savings of .575 million.

 

The cap is a paper number. Salary is a cash flow issue. Basically, the contracts that have been signed this summer are hedging on the Sabres revenue growth. The Sabres are betting that revenue will grow each year and costs will as well. This way they keep the same cost to revenue ratio and still earn the same profit. It's a lot of finance talk, but it's likely that the $36 million target that is rumored, may only be an actual salary (cash) target for 06-07 whereas the cap (paper) target could exceed it.

 

Any thoughts?

You have a pretty solid understanding of it.

 

The real $ expenditure this season will be lower than the cap expenditure.

 

But, because the cap is real (unlike the NFL's version where players get bonuses that are spread over the life of a contract and the contracts aren't guaranteed) and the players will get the money over the life of the deal (with a handful of exceptions that have their contracts bought out at (typically) 2/3 value (which then is charged to the cap on a schedule)), although Tallinder's real salary is lower than his cap hit this year, by the end of the contract, the Sabres will be paying him more than they are getting charged in cap $'s.

 

While the cap # is a paper number, it makes the overall accounting of salaries far easier over the life of a contract and reduces the likelihood that a team will buy a player out at the end of his contract. (E.g. a player who had a 3 year $6MM contract paying $1, $2, and $3 in each respective year only counts as $2MM against the cap in his final year, although he actually earns $3MM. The team, in order to buy him out has to shell out $2MM and will see $1MM against the cap this season and another $1MM next season. So the team spends $2MM out of pocket anyway, and only sees a net cap savings of $1MM in this season and sees a hit of $1MM next season.)

 

The Sabres salaries aren't just counting on revenues increasing in future years, they are also setting the Sabres in good position if the leaguewide revenues don't grow as quickly as the Sabres revenues grow, because the Sabres future actual payrolls can exceed the salary cap by the amount the players actual salaries exceed their salary cap #'s. (E.g., Say a team's payroll not counting player x is $37MM and the cap is $40MM. If player x is in the 3rd year of a 3 year deal that payed him 2, 3, and 4, then he counts $3MM against the cap but actually gets $4MM. So, although the team exceeds the cap, it only counts as $40MM and the team doesn't exceed the cap. Of course, had the player been in year 1 of that deal, the team's actual cap that year would have been $39MM, not $40 as the player that gets $2MM counts as $3MM.)

[X. Benedict]

The worst game Lydman ever played was the first game against Philly in the playoffs.

Actually it made me like Loods more - you could tell he was up all night in anticipation

and that he had a tremendous case of the playoff yips.

 

The fact that he was almost too nervous to play was almost endearing because most nights his

game is so precise. Once he settled down in the playoffs he was great, but I like him all the

more because he was a player that was more nervous than me being in the playoffs.

 

I love when he joins the rush - which isn't too often - but when he does - it is a pleasure.

There was nothing quite like watching Darrian Hatcher come of the ice just shaking his head because he watched the last 90 seconds go right past him when Lydman brought the puck into the offensive zone circled behind the net and taunted the guy like a gorrila in a cage.

I don't know why I remember that moment because they didn't score, but Hatcher just came off the ice demoralized because the play exposed him as too big and too slow and Lydman showed him that he could do that any time he wanted and Hatcher came off with a look that said to the entire arena - we can't contain that.